Pro-Palestinian demonstrators block roads to Chicago airport, Golden Gate Bridge

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and Oregon on Monday, temporarily shutting down travel into Chicago O’Hare International Airport, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast highway.

In Chicago, protesters linked arms and blocked lanes of Interstate 190 leading into one of the nation’s busiest airports around 7 a.m., a demonstration they said was part of a global “economic blockade to free Palestine,” according to Rifqa Falaneh, one of the organizers.

Traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area was snarled for hours as demonstrators shut down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and chained themselves to 55-gallon drums filled with cement across Interstate 880 in Oakland. Protesters marching into Brooklyn blocked Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. In Eugene, Ore., protesters blocked Interstate 5, shutting down traffic on the major highway for about 45 minutes.

Justice Thomas misses Monday court session

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was absent from the court Monday with no explanation.

Justice Thomas, 75, also was not participating remotely in arguments, as justices sometimes do when they are ill or otherwise can’t be there in person.

Chief Justice John Roberts announced Justice Thomas’ absence, saying that his colleague would still participate in the day’s cases, based on the briefs and transcripts of the arguments. The court sometimes, but not always, says when a justice is out sick.

Justice Thomas was hospitalized two years ago with an infection, causing him to miss several court sessions. He took part in the cases then, too. He is the longest serving of the current justices, joining the Supreme Court in 1991.

Sudden heavy rains in Oman kill at least 17

Heavy rainfall caused flash flooding in Oman on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, killing at least 17 people as rescuers searched for survivors, authorities said Monday. In one incident, a group of school children and a driver died when their vehicle was overtaken, authorities said.

Heavy rains also were expected over Dubai in the neighboring United Arab Emirates and other regions of the Arabian Peninsula.

Civil defense officials gave the death toll for the rains, which saw Oman’s North Al Sharqiyah province hardest hit. The Royal Oman Police and the Omani military deployed to the province to transport citizens out of flooded areas, the state-run Oman News Agency reported.